Busy Week for Opinions in Social Media

It’s proved a busy week for opinionated people in the realm of social media. Two new sites have launched in the last week that afford users the ability to save and share their thoughts about products and places: Fablistic and SocialSmack.

Fablistic, geared towards social networking via ratings and reviews, aims to bring a more interpersonal touch to the format behind traditional opinion powerhouses like Amazon reviews. Fablistic has a five point approach: save, share, organize, remember, and explore. In essence, it provides users a way to remember what they thought about things like restaurants, books, movies, electronics, or other products and services. While they’re at it, they can let their voice be heard across the Fablistic site and discover other topics that might be of interest by viewing the opinions of others.

Fablistic is now open to the general public at Fablistic.com. Users can sign up for an independent account or use their Facebook login details to participate.

SocialSmack was recently announced to the world at Silicon Valley’s DEMO Conference, as one of 70 companies selected to present at the gathering. SocialSmack takes a lighthearted approach at reviews and ratings, creating a social game-like atmosphere by giving users the opportunity to earn points, badges, and other honors for their participation. The system is based on “props” (good reviews) and “drops” (bad reviews) for brands. It’s similar to location-based networking in that it lets you “check in” with your positive or negative rating. In his Examiner.com article Daniel Seynard points out it’s also a way for brands to see how they are performing.

SocialSmack is currently in open beta at SocialSmack.com. Like Fablistic, you can sign up for a standalone account or link with Facebook.